Who will be the next President of the European Research Council?

The committee will be chaired by Mario Monti, President of the Bocconi University in Milan, former European Commissioner and former Minister of Italy. Mr. Monti will be assisted in his task by six experts:

• Alice Gast, President of Imperial College London  
• Fabiola Gianotti, Director-General of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research
• Carl-Henrik Heldin, Director of the Ludwig Institute at Uppsala University, Chairman of the board of the Nobel Foundation
• Jules A. Hoffmann, Chair of Integrative Biology, University of Strasbourg, 2011 Nobel Prize in Medicine
• Helga Novotny, Professor emeritus of Social Studies of Science, ETH Zurich, Former President of the ERC Scientific Council 
• Maciej Zylicz, President and Executive Director of the Foundation for Polish Science

The next ERC President will take office on 1 January 2020, replacing the current President, Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon.

Background

The ERC, set up in 2007, results from the Seventh Framework Programme for Research. The Centre is now part of the “Excellence Science” pillar of the current Framework Programme, Horizon 2020. Its mission is to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields.